Dennis and Jo Fahringer serve as non-salaried full-time volunteer staff at the University of the Nations - Kona (UofN-Kona). Both are teachers. The UofN is the training part of the larger Christian mission organization, Youth With A Mission (YWAM). This is a unique university with 785 locations of UofN in 163 nations, teaching in 95 languages.
Their campus is in Kailua-Kona, Hawaii.
Dennis leads the intensive School of Photography I (SOP I) and School of Photography II (SOP II) and their internships.
Each of these are 12 week, 12 credit university courses in the UofN.
He began in photography in 1963, started teaching photography in 1970, and became a professional photographer in 1972. He ran a freelance photo business for three years before beginning his career as a missions photographer in 1974 in Washington, DC. (That was with the now defunct Christian Service Corps.)
Dennis and Jo began serving on YWAM staff in 1977. Dennis pioneered the School of Photography I in the Netherlands. His January, 2020 School of Photography I will be his 47th photo school so far with the UofN, thanks to the Lord.
God has taken Dennis and his cameras 51 nations so far.
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Jo teaches and staffs in the challenging 9 month School of Biblical Studies (SBS).
Students read through the entire Bible, reading each book at least five times. Using the inductive approach, the goal of the course is to give students the tools to study the Bible for the rest of their lives and to teach others to do the same.
The purpose of the school is for the students to apply the truth of the Bible to their lives. Because they focus on the Word and its application in their hearts, the lives of the students are dramatically transformed during the school.
With the Bible as their foundation for ministry, SBS graduates have served in missions in many capacities; have served in local churches in teaching, preaching and leading Bible studies; have continued their studies for advanced degrees to become professors and theologians; and have entered many fields of professional service with a transformative Biblical worldview. Many students say the SBS is the best thing they’ve ever done.
Because there’s an epidemic of Bible poverty throughout the world, and because so many Christians haven’t read the Bibles they have, we feel that the SBS and the shorter Bible courses are some of the most important programs we offer in YWAM.
In September, 2019, Jo returned from Samoa, the Solomon Islands, Papua New Guinea and Australia where she had been teaching in YWAM Bible classes in each location. She had been in each of these locations a few times, and one of her great joys was to see students she had taught in the past now teaching others, and to hear about many others doing the same.
Students from several nations in the Pacific and Asia come to these classes to be trained and then return to their own nations, or go to other locations and teach others what they have been given. This is one of the ways that Bible poverty can be ended: teaching those who will then teach others. What a privilege to be involved in this effort!